Wanted: Creative Superheroes to "Do Good"

We can all agree that we need to get more people to act when it comes to addressing extreme poverty throughout the world. Since you’re reading this post, you are already one of those who do. And we need your help.

Are you a communicator with a big idea about changing the world? Or, do you know someone who is?

More than one billion people today are living in extreme poverty – living on less than $1.25 per day. This is a staggering number. But this is not just about an income number, it’s about living without basic needs such as clean water or nutrition and access to education and opportunity.

This may seem hopeless. But as a recent Economist article pointed out, much progress has been made to reduce extreme poverty. The goal to cut it in half was achieved five years early in 2010. The problem is, the story of this tremendous progress is largely untold.

Now, international leaders are coming together around a new global development agenda with a goal of bringing to nearly zero the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2030.

Today, in partnership with the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, we are launching the Cannes Chimera Initiative, which will challenge the international creative community to proposeinnovative communications ideas that can help the global community achieve this ambitious goal.

Our first brief is quite simple: How can you bring forward a long-term goal such as nearly eliminating extreme poverty and make it feel possible and relevant today? How can you make it matter to people until it’s achieved?

We’re excited to be testing this innovative partnership and are eager to support ideas generated in response to the brief. We believe the innovations coming out of this initiative will have real potential to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems and improve the lives of many people around the world.

The competition is open until the end of September but you can enter now.

We’ll profile winners in future posts, here on Impatient Optimists. Check back and search for #CannesChimera.

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"Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward." —Melinda Gates

The Global Fund has helped to deliver more than 190 million bed nets to protect families from malaria.

"The world faces a clear choice. If we invest relatively small amounts, many more poor farmers will be able to feed their families." —Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter

"When it come to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we're impatient optimists. Tremendous progress is being made. But there is still so much we're impatient to see done." —Melinda French Gates

In Senegal, 80% of households now have a bed net, helping the number of malaria cases there drop 50% in a single year.